SimHoTToDDy BATs

[Jasoncw 11,840]

3ds Max is taking care of all of the lighting, so you don't need to put gradients on the textures (the intention of the gradient is to roughly simulate how light behaves).

I think that the color of the brick looks about right, but I think that the brick is too big. While it's true that brick needs to exaggerated, it doesn't need to be exaggerated that much. If I had to guess I'd say that your bricks are about 6 x 2 feet big, lol. Also, you need to make sure you get the proportion of brick correct, since bricks aren't that wide. Also, I think some variation in the brick would be good. You can do this, by, in Photoshop, making a new layer, and using the fill bucket, set to "sample all layers" (the setting is at the top of the screen on that horizontal bar), to fill in the different bricks with different shades of grey, and then setting that layer's blending mode to "overlay", and then changing the opacity until it looks good. Aside from that, you can also make another new layer, and use a big round brush with an opacity of about 10% to draw big blobs of black and white, and then setting that to overlay and lowering the opacity. This will create some texture and will help break up monotony and tiling.

If you need more detailed instructions I can write them.

[Gn_leugim 853]

realy nice.. keep it up.. the textures are looking good.. you have learned fast

[SimHoTToDDy 2,938]

Thanks Jason, while I know my way around Photoshot pretty well, I never thought to do it that way, silly me.

And thank you once again Gn_leugim, I am just very particular about what I do and how I do it, or else I probably would have uploaded 5 things by now.

Progress: (click it!)

I adjusted the roof texture to get it under control, though I think that it needs to contrast with the edge of the walls more. A little darker and/or desaturation? Before you say anything, I know I need to re-do the roof of the main building, that is really starting to upset me. Then roof junk... ugh... roof junk.... soo much roof junk that needs to be done. I don't know if I want to frame out the windows on those roof units, but I will probably have to. Oh well, this is a blast to work with, it is quite an exercise with 3ds max, it has helped a lot with my organization and texturing methods just due to the nature of the model (mostly how none of the objects had any names, and the sheer number of them of course). Oh, one more thing, what would you recommend I do about the bright spots on top of the towers, I can;t think of an easy way to fix it, at least not until I get better at manipulating more complex shapes.

Please, let me know what you think, I could still use a lot of advice on how to carry this out,

-Todd

[SimFox 802]

it looks good and Battersea is LONG overdue to the SC4 world!

There are few modeling issues with it though...

Proportions are a bit off (lower parts are too tall), but that is a minor issue... More noticeable and distracting are numerous co-planar surfaces resulting in ugly black splotches, particularly at the corners. You should also make a routine use of SNAPs to avoid miss-aligments.

On texturing side I'd say that smoke stacks dirt is way to artificial and pronounced. It (just like the overly aggressive roof textures prior) makes it look toy-like.

[SimHoTToDDy 2,938]

Just another view:

SimFox: Yeah, the overlapping objects is the source of most of my woe when working on this. Almost every piece I have worked on (and subsequently repaired) had an issue with overlapping. Though there are a few small spots still around on the things I have textured, it doesn't compare to the horror show that was there before (case in point, the left portion of this picture). I'll work on the stack's texture, I thought something looked weird, just wanted someone to varify (sometimes I think I'm too picky).

I don't really see what you mean by the proportions of the "lower parts" but its probably staring right at me, and I just havenet noticed it yet.

Thanks,

-Todd

[toxicpiano 125]

Roof for real building.

Looking at the brick textures all together, they seem too clean I Think.

[SimHoTToDDy 2,938]

I've got a better one, at least for the roof that needs the most work, though I could use some help identifying those black boxes on top of the main roof, I'm confused as to what they are(other than stacks of boxes lol) (click)

Bricks still need more dirt? Well I'll see what I can do.

[spa 968]

The roof looks a lot better now! I would agree that the brick could use some more dirt, but be careful not to make it look reptitive. The best thing to do would be to make large textures that can cover a whole side so that you can add unique "dirt" and not have it look tiled (I'm guessing you've tiled it right now?)

[SimHoTToDDy 2,938]

Thanks spa. I haven't been using a tiled texture, it just looked like it because of how clean I left the texture. In fact, it is anything but tiled, being 3200x3000 it repeats a little more than twice on the longest of the walls.

Well, here is the latest. I redid all of my roofs to match what the building actually has (or had) as far as the skylights go. Changed the main roof, again, to match what it had. Also fixed the stack texture and dirtied up the bricks, I'm actually quite happy with the result, there are only one or two tiny splotches that need to be adjusted to combat tiling. The roof looks rather bare at the moment, dominated by the skylights, but they are pretty damn close to the pictures I have and I think that they should look less oppressive when I add some of the roof junk.

There is a little uvw map glitch that needs to be fixed on the textured side of the building, its just a bit mis-aligned. Don't mind the black holes for the windows in some places, they just never had any, and I haven't gotten around to putting them in yet.

And I STILL need to figure out something for the tops of the towers...

Let me know what you think,

-Todd

[Jasoncw 11,840]

Looking good!

For the skylights, I'd definitely model the frames, and not texture them in.

For the tops of the towers, in real life, most of the time the tops of walls will have flashing, which is metal (or some other material) caps that drain rain water away (so that instead of going straight into the brick from the top of the brick, which can cause the brick to deteriorate). I don't know if this building in particular has flashing, but you could add it to cover up the top and make it look good.

[nihonkaranws 88]

Wow! Where are you finding all these great and realistic textures?

[SimHoTToDDy 2,938]

Jason: I knew you would say that, so I did actually make most of the frames on the skylights, problem was, they were not far enough from the "glass" so it ended up looking like a flat texture. Also, while I love the idea of adding flashing to this, I'm not sure where it would go. Just around the widest part of the top of the towers? There are places where It wouldn't makes sense putting, and others where it might work, I just don't know where it should go with out it looking alienated.

nihonkaranws: I get the base texture from HERE, but the ones I end up using are gutted and completely reworked in Photoshop to fit the particular situation. A tedious task at times, but I like how things come out as a result.

Ok, because of the flashing proposition that Jason brought up, I thought I would show what I had for the towers as of now. My thoughts would be to put it around where the small "wall".

I also played with the skylight textures and the frame's size to get something a little more appealing. I don't, however, know which way to go in terms of color. I tried a bunch of different things, but am probably going towards a gray color with a tint of blue, bunch like number 2. Note, I didn't change the frame's texture between any of these, but 2 looks really awesome because it's distance from the "glass" is about 2x more, so you can see some shadows.

Let me know what you think about those.

In other news, I finished texturing all the walls, placed the windows that were missing, and continued to combat the coplaner objects that cover this thin. You can imagine what it looks like though. Once I get these skylights, its time to spam some serious roof junk

-Todd

[JakeMD 107]

As far as the SkyLights go, I think the last dark green one.

[jacqulina 162]

very nice

[mcarch 15]

Wow... This was a project from someone a long time ago (I dont remember who)... it was never released. This looks cool. Is it going to be a working power station?

[T Wrecks 10,209]

Originally posted by: mcarch Wow... This was a project from someone a long time ago (I dont remember who)... it was never released.quote>

I think you mean marrast's fabulous model.

Originally posted by: mcarchIs it going to be a working power station?quote>

Once the model is rendered for SC4, my friend, we can turn it into pretty much everything from a fully functional powerplant to a bus stop.  So even if Todd didn't make it a working power plant, someone else doubtlessly would. This someone might even be me.

[sim-Al2 4]

I think the second skylight is the best-looking. It's a nice netural color without being too bright and standing out too much.

T Wrecks: It would be strange if the Battersea Power Plant was never modded into a power plant. Still not seeing the point of a bus station with smokestacks though.

[SimHoTToDDy 2,938]

jacqulina: Thanks!

mcarch: This is actually by TheQuiltedllama that was released back in January, I'm just surprised no one has taken it up before me! I am hoping to turn it into a power plant, yes.

SWAT-MEDIC: That's the path I was headed down before I tried a more gray texture, but I have to say I like it a lot. I'll probably do a render with that color and then one with the gray to see which one I like most.

T Wrecks: marrast? *tisk* Where'd you get that name? You should know better =P J/K Anyway, yeah, this will be a 'power station', although I was thinking of making it with some industrial jobs, I might need to get back to you on some modding details though, I'm not to good at all that lot and mod stuff.

sim-Al2: Yeah, that's the color I came to after playing with some more exciteing ones, I'll have to see how it looks in comparison with the rest of the building. And all T wrecks is saying about the bus station is that we can make it literally anything we feel like.

Thanks Everyone!

[toxicpiano 125]

I think the second one from the top, nice and subtle.

[SimHoTToDDy 2,938]

I am probably going with the one on the one on the right here, more contrast = more interesting IMO. I changed the texture of the outer frame, but nothing major. Just something to help differentiate  the one side of the skylight from the next. I do have to admit, the green still holds a place in my heart, I just think the gray/blue one is better.

A mock up of the different variations I am still considering :

I'll replace the rest of the remaining skylights tonight (mayby get some roof junk done if im up to it--- Still need opinions as to what exactly is on top of the main roof.) and probably have a decent, updated render for tomorrow.

-Todd

[futurama2506sim 7]

Nice work! Smokestacks are great

[wishfulanthony 3]

For the rooftop, Todd, I like the 3rd model from the left the best because it's more natural (light blue, reminiscent of glass). For more of a realistic look, use the right-most roof top because it shows the grime of the roof from years of exposure from the sun and rain.

[ianpaschal 77]

moar dirt n griem plz

[SimHoTToDDy 2,938]

futurama2506sim: Thanks!

Anthony: I was going to use that lighter blue one, but I thought it stuck out too much in contrast with the rest of the building, just a tad too bright, so I darkened it up a bit. The one all the way on the right is kinda weird looking and out of date with the window frames I have in place now. Well, let me know how the ones I picked looked.

Scipio: Moar? MOAR?!?!?! h0w mch m04r u w4n7?

lol... I really didn't want to over kill the dirt on this one, but perhaps I will add some contrast to what  I already have.

---

Well, as promised, here are some updated renders. I started some of the roof junk, just did single models, the blocky ones just have a preliminary roof texture which I will change once I get a decent array going to avoid repetition.

East side, which I haven't show you all yet:

A few details still need to be worked out, like Jasons flashing, but its a big step twords finishing.

-Todd

[toxicpiano 125]

the skylights look excellent

[SimHoTToDDy 2,938]

Thanks, I like how they came out too. I was afraid that  they would look too out of place.

click:

I need to add a utility shed on the left, which I didn't even notice in the pictures I have until this render was in progress, but other than that, nothing major needs to be done. I tried to go as close to the pics as possible, leaving out only a few things that I wasn't compelled to make last night I might add a few more vents/junk to fill in those bare spots, or do you think that they are ok? There isn't much there IRL.

Anyway, this is rolling right along, with all the geometry I am adding, I am just now starting to strain 3ds max =P

-Todd

[bixel 1,223]

ooooooh yeh!

[mntoes 270]

Wow I love the texturing on this especially the chimneys. As for the bare spots I suppose it depends on how driven you are by accuracy. Either way it will still look great.

 

[spa 968]

Some impressive progress. I like the skylights!

[Gn_leugim 853]

I have to say that the new roof stuff is nice.. only the window texture.. hummm.. to granny from far no? =1